Nov 2, 2009

Windsurfing racers, and in particular slalom sailors, want a sail with great top-speed potential and a lot of wind range. We don't get many pure race sails at the annual Windsport equipment test so we were happy to get our hands on the Sailworks NX 7.1 in Hood River at the AWSI industry demo.

Marketing info:

The NX Series is Sailworks high end, cambered racing sail. Refined from years of progressive evolution and tuned for competition by top North American racers Bruce Peterson and Dale Cook.

According to Sailworks designer Bruce Peterson, "New 9.9 and 10.8-meter sizes coming from my Nationals FW championship prototytpe. All other NX sizes continuing geometrically as in 2009, but with some batten tweaks and minor construction upgrades."

Featuring advanced seam shaping and luff tensioning characteristics, the NX Sails has a highly developed range of settings. Racers and aggressive power sailors will revel in its wide power band and stable control. Sizes 5.4 and 6.2 are for high wind slalom, and are cut for reduced diameter masts (RDM); sizes 7.1 and 8.2 are cut light wind slalom sailing and fit on standard diameter masts (SDM). Sizes 9.1 through 10.8 are cut for Formula sailing.

At Speed:

This is a truly fast sail and feels best on a slalom board that can keep up to it. The NX can hold down a ton of wind and simply turns gusts into even more board speed without any pull or work on the rider whatsoever. To tell you the upper wind capability of the NX, riders easily made the jump to powered-up 5.3-m wavesails in the same wind they were enjoyably blasting on the NX 7.1! The moderate draft height makes it a perfect match for all slalom boards and narrow to moderately-wide speedy freeride shapes.

Jibing & Maneuverability:

It feels a little heavy until it is up to speed and thus supported with wind, but nothing drastically different from most other cambered sails. It jibes well with the mid-height draft prefering you to be aggressive upon entry (so don't be afraid to commit to the carve... it likes it!) However, the NX will not punish you with a catapult if you don't commit right away (so there is some room for error). The cams rotate very well for such a stable sail and even with the outhaul backed off and the draft set pretty deep it rotates cleanly.

Rigging & Tuning:

This NX 7.1 was rigged for us by designer Bruce Peterson and we didn't feel that messing with the downhaul in the windy conditions would help us any (it is a race sail after all). Using the adjustable outhaul, we found it easy and very effective to tune for sailing upwind and downwind.